Walcott: Yeah, I’m brilliant

Theo Walcott scored his tenth goal in 11 games last night despite not being fully fit. His record this season is no mean feat for any striker (let alone a winger) and given he’s available to sign a pre-contract agreement with other clubs in January it’s a pretty big boost to his chances of securing the kind of money he thinks he’s worth.

While he’s still an Arsenal player it’s great to see him delivering the goods, but you can’t help but feel he’s really driven by the fact he’s in the shop window.

Sounding like a page out of Michael Owen’s infamous ‘buy-me-I’m-ace’ dossier crossed with a late night QVC infomercial, he’s taken to analysing his game with all the modesty of a Nicklas Bendtner.

“Those are the sort of positions that this season and in the last few seasons I have been quite deadly in,” he told Arsenal.com after opening the scoring against Everton.

“When given a little sniff I am able to take it now. The goals show that.

“I think I scored 11 last season and 13 the year before. Not just that, but my general play as well. The assists are coming now, which is fantastic, and I am enjoying my football.

“I am very happy with the way I have started and it has got to continue. Hopefully I will take it into Saturday’s game.”

He might well have added, “I’m available on a free transfer in January and if you pay me the £100,000 a week I want I’ll even throw in a winning smile. And some steak knives.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah…we know we sound bitter, but with only a month left to sign a new deal Arseblog News is quickly losing any hope that Walcott will extend his time at the Emirates. Naturally, while he’s at the club wearing the canon on his chest he has our backing, but you know…we’re fragile.

So he wasn’t the 2nd leading goal scorer for us last season then and also the person with the most assists? You know what, half the time I don’t blame our players for wanting to leave. With – relatively speaking – derisory salary increases offered oblivious to the going rate and “fans” like some I see on the boards it’s not hard to believe players leave.

Theo’s developed, albeit not as quick as some would hope, over the past few seasons and now he’s performing he’s selling himself?! Only a short time ago you were all saying, “Oh Theo, shit bastard.” Support your fucking team for a change.

This article sounds like the build up to another “he’s a cunt” diatribe that goes on whenever any paper leaves Arsenal. Will he be a “greedy bastard” or have too many “ridiculous demands” that we are assured these players always make but never hear what they actually are. Is his agent greedy? or is the nefarious Darren Dein involved? Any reason never to blame the club.

Bergkamp missed the gravy train a little and by the time he could have fucked off for a last payday elsewhere, for whatever reason he decided to see out his career at arsenal and *fuck my old boots* take a paycut to do so. We rightly lionise him for this amongst other things

you might debate the rights and wrongs of how arsenal value a player re: their contract, but “blame” is a facile way of attempting to introduce that and whatever you think, the largest influencer by a long way is the player and his agent/advisors.

When I say “blame ” you are taking that pejoratively. All I’m saying is that maybe the way Arsenal value the wages they their players is wrong and should be questioned instead of the usual kneejerk “they are all cunts” nonsense?

the problem with that is the corollary to the “we undervalue our players, waaahhh” whinge is the “bendtner, denilson, chamakh, diaby, £50K a week waaahhhh” whinge that tends to come from the *very same keyboards* and drive us all batshit mad

personally i think the club called it right with TH14 and Cesc, wrong with RvP and that we’re about right with Theo although the scary thing is the form he’s showing right now – is that Theo coming good for ever, or is it Theo playing for his big payday move? If it’s the latter the club are right, if it’s the former then… oh dear.

also many supporters forget (or don’t know) that when AW came in one of his first actions was to tear up some of GG’s contracts and awards decent pay rises all round – in line with where they should have been at the time. Wenger is no scrooge. Question is, what is “decent” now has been poisoned by sugar daddy money at Chelsea and Citeh. Really fucks that scenario up. Hmmm.

We pay them as much as we can afford to, in proportion to everybody else at the club. They’d get more if we were able to move some of the detritus on but they’d also get more if they pulled their fingers out.

I’m afraid the facts are we simply can’t just give them more money, I don’t like it and we need to make better use of the money we have but when someone puts their bank accounts above Arsenal and are two-faced enough to insist it’s not at all about money, they’re going to get abuse, and rightly so. Most of us understand it’s a business and if money is the most important thing, I don’t agree but fair enough, just don’t be a dick about insisting it isn’t.

Well said sir!
If Theo leaves, I’ll never call him a cunt, greedy or any other names.
The club has no one to blame but themselves, give him what he wants for fucks sake, it makes more sense than letting him leave on a free.

Can you give me any reason why Walcott can demand more than any other player at Arsenal? He has had a good 10 games, well done to him. Last year he had a decent return, but I still think for the position he plays in and the fact that it was with RVP banging them in for fun, that’s no reason to eulogise him.

For the other 6 seasons he was crap. He has pace, he is charming and English, so fans love him. He is utterly inconsistent (until this year when he’s surprise surprise playing for a move), his control and vision has not improved either, only his finishing has. Not a bad player, but I am happy with what the club is doing.

There is no way he should be our best paid player just because he demands it. Let him go to Liverpool, good riddance. He is one player who is certainly not irreplaceable.

Agreed. Who cares if he wants more money? I feel he’s earned it based on his performances. He’s done his part, time for the club to do theirs and get this shit sorted out. Why is it that every other top club can sort these situations out, while we continue to fuck them up year after year?

Mate. We cant cave to any hit or miss player with a sudden good streak and comparatively sky high wage to other players and just give give give. Didnt Chamakh have a good streak when he joined. If he suddenly asked for more would you be happy to habd it over? And how would you feel now, seeing his contributions and long term level of play?

Let’s get to the gritty: Arsenal are in debt. Say what you will about competing, but it is what it is. If you’re down in money are you happy to spend spend spend? Would you not play hardball in negotiations on a player who has been hit and miss, when you’re £98mill in debt? Is that realistic??

No. And don’t lie to yourself. We dont have sugar daddy backing or Man Utd income. Arsenal offered a great deal WITHIN THEIR MEANS to Van Cuntelaar, he didn’t take it. He buggered offer talking about his inner Arsenal top wearing child wished to be a Man Ure player. REALISTICALLY he’s given one great season after 7 not so prolific ones. Does it look like a yes? Right now, yeah. With that money though we afforded Pod and Giroud. Not bad in my opinion.

Son, living in the real world means accepting grown up things, like paying what you owe. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can pay for top quality everywhere in the team, like the Invincibles era.

Well said mate, the subjectivity shown by a certain writers for this sight is ridiculous. Due to our out of touch management from Wenger upwards we’ll likely lose arguably our best player (this sounds vaguely familiar doesn’t it?) in January and yes he’ll be a cunt, a money grabber, a this or a that. It’s sad and for me it’s why I frequent this site less and less.

It’s not just the above either. Regardless of what Theo does he’s either shit, lucky or every now and again he’ll be given begrudging credit. Whereas the likes of Ramsey who has been constantly inefficient for two seasons now is given a pat on the back.

ha! yes. or his shoulder popping out of its socket again a week after he signs; he has benefited tremendously from not playing 90 minutes, week in week out… if he could adopt the mentality of Ole Gunnar Solskjær and enjoy spending 60% of a match on the bench for most of a career, he could become a really important player for Arsenal (and I don’t mean that sarcastically)…

Gotta love the Carling Cola Milk Cup. Pressure’s off. Easier to play exciting football and score goals. Perfect situation for Walcott to notch a few goals. Come January Sales they just ask “How many?” not “Which games?”

If you believe him he suddenly got much better over the past 6 seasons. Not just the last 10 appearances, but retroactively better over his entire career with us. All those times we thought he was inconsistent it actually turns out he was deadly. How could we have been so mistaken?

Walcott’s cockiness at the moment know no bounds . Arsenal are now in a very difficult position having stated publicly that their new commercial deals will mean they can now keep their better players. We’ll soon find out whether they consider Walcott one of our “better players”.

the apparent tabling of a £75K a week contract when the club knows there will be bigger offers from elsewhere would suggest that the answer to the question “Do Arsenal consider Theo Walcott one of our better players?” is “Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain”

YOU GUYS WILL NOT GIVE THE POOR LAD A BREAK!!!!!!!!
you guys are why we have that you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone syndrome. Leading goal scorer, model proffessional and he wants to be at arsenal. no one should doubt! that he just wants a far crack of the whip up front, personally think he desreves it. Think if wenger had the nerve to do it in the first place where would he be right now???
No matter what anyone says the lad is not only on fire right now, he has been nothing short of professional through out his career and i for one will miss the little speedster when he leaves. he is second only to wiltshere when it comes to selling his image. As for shop window playing cant you just except its not the shop window thats motivating him its the fact he feels he has a point to prove and proving it he is……………
for the love of god do you guy’s have to hate so much when did we gooners become so pessimistic and malicious

Has the businessman Kroenke told us it is not about the money? The fact is any profit made is a surplus left unclaimed by these players, so why earn a lower wage when whatever is left goes into building Mr Kroenke’s assets. The game is business and the sooner we understand this, the better.

That would be about a year after the Bosman ruling mate. That’s when we started to get the feeling our heroes did it all for cash rather than love of the badge. That’s when we realised they were all old pros at heart.

Football was much nicer for the fans when players cried when their mean managers told them they had been sold to some hairy old geezer from up north. Those were the good old days. Your players loved the badge and all you had to worry about was being beaten to death outside the ground if you got separated from your fifty skinhead mates.

All this makes me fucking laugh. All the slagging off has started already. Do people still not get it. It’s happening to far to
Many of our top players for them all to be cunts blah blah blah. Absolute fucking disgrace some people on here. What if jack is then sold, another cunt in the making ?

You have to understand that there are bunch of kids on this forum driven by the mood of Arseblog news. So I think Arseblog news have to stop slamming players which are leaving cos The Board is saving money for… sometimes in bloody Future when they won’t drag every single player to the point when they leave for the first decent offer!
Walcott is worth 90.000 and Arsenal won’t give him that, so if I am Walcott I would leave also. Sagna too.

Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas – recent departures who’ve not been slated and who have shown the kind of respect/restraint you’d hope for in former players

Adebayor, Nasri – the opposite

Walcott will be in the first group when he goes so long as he’s nice about Arsenal when he’s at Liverpool or wherever he ends up. We all know that Toure and Clichy went for the £££ and nobody is stupid enough to think otherwise, but for fucks sakes, play the game and show a bit of respect once you’ve made the move. It’s not too much to ask, and it’s not too much to ask for a bit of intelligence and respect whilst your agent earns you a big pay packet. Theo is doing that, unlike the last idiot who went North and thought he could go “hey guys, I know how to run Arsenal best oh wait how much? the inner child he says yes” etc etc

i don’t think we’re terrible, there’s a little bit of judgement going on here for most of us i think

Completely agree, no wonder players leave with fans giving then shit non stop,’! Theo wants to play up front and not on the wing, he could be the next Henry given a fair chance! But we will probably lose him due you wengers bizarre need to play players out of position!

Exactly.
If we change to play him through the middle, we need someone of real quality to play wide right and we’ll probably have to buy to cover that.
Alternatively we can just let him go and buy to cover that, saving 100 grand a week and the need to reengineer our play to accommodate him.
That looks like a fairly simple choice to me.

Theo’s problem here is that while he apparently feels awesome in front of goal, in order to command 100k and a change of formation he needs to actually *be* awesome in front of goal. That means burying 50% of the chances he gets rather than the 1 in 4 or so he’s getting now.
Also he needs to *consistantly* be awesome in front of goal and I’ll only believe that when I bloody see it.

Wenger’s philosophy is to have his players capable of playing in more than one position. That means forwards can play anywhere across the front. Don’t you think Theo was told that when he was signed? That he would become a better all-round forward? I bet it was a selling point for him. A chance to emulate Thierry Henry. Now he acts like he has been tricked into playing on the wing.

Just as an aside, George Armstrong joined Arsenal’s youth team in 1961. Initially he had been a forward but was soon switched to the wing. He made his debut not long after joining the club; while still only 17. he remained a winger, played 621 games for Arsenal, and scored 68 league goals. He never once complained about playing all those games on the wing. He was a true Arsenal legend.

the biggest issue I have with all of Theo’s statements are that they are all about him. NOT the team. I mean its great for him that he’s getting the goals and assists to pad his stats, but if the team doesn’t win, then it doesn’t amount to much.

He is very much a “Me” person and not a “we” person… We need the team players in this squad if we are going to have a chance

No, I don’t. And just for the record, I didn’t write this article. I think it would be good if Walcott stayed but the reality is that it would be a massive, massive surprise if he did.

Like many of you I’ve seen this situation before, I take the ‘I really want to stay’ stuff with a very hefty pinch of salt because if he really wanted to stay he and his agents wouldn’t have walked away from talks with the club (more than once) which were started in the summer of 2011.

Fair play to him, short career, he can make a killing on a Bosman and good luck to him but I’m not going to shed any tears. As long as he’s playing well and scoring then I’m happy enough but nobody should kid themselves that this is anything other than more zeroes on his next pay packet which will, 99%, be with someone else.

He definitely seems more confident and sure of himself. This has meant that a) he is better in front of goal and b) he has an inflated opinion of his ability.

How many times have we seen him in front of goal where a simple pass to an unmarked player would result in an almost* certain goal but he goes for glory instead (Schalke, Fulham etc.) – something thing that Henry, Pires, Bergkamp would never do.
At the moment it really seems like “me” first and the “team” second.

Has it occurred to the writer of the article that it might be the club who are in the wrong? Theo wants more money, so what, he deserves it in my opinion. £100K a week is pretty much the going rate for

(a) a forward to scores 15 goals a season and creates as much
(b) Is only young and still has time to develop into a real world beater

Are we constantly going to arrive at this problem? Yes, if we don’t pay our best talent what the market says we should (City and Chelsea aside we should be matching everyone else in England and probably most of Europe)

With the new commercial revenue deal coming in we should be sending a message to rivals and to our players that we really are willing to spend to keep our best performers at the club, and that we want to buy real talent when needed.

It’s all well and good slagging the players off but the club has to show the player they are valued and wanted, completely a two way street. I always thought players were to blame in these situations but when you see the players we have lost over the last 4-5 years then you realize the trend has been on the up and to an extent it’s as much to do with how we value players.

For me Theo is a player who £100K a week is fair, he’s only going to get better. This shop window theory is bollocks too frankly, he’s just had a great start to a season, if he keeps on at this rate or close to it then we will have him to thank for keeping us in CL spot.

I couldn’t agree more, why difference does it make to any of us how much Theo gets paid?!?
I couldn’t care less of he gets 30k or 300k a week as along as he gives his all for the Arsenal.
We already pay the most for tickets in all of Europe.
It’s tough enough watching RVP banging in the goals for Utd, if Theo joins him, I don’t think I’ll watch any football next season

Do you seriously think arsenal can´t make it without Theo Walcott? Yes he is a great player but he is not worthy a 100k/week contract, he don´t show the same passion for the club as other players in this squad does.. Sometimes he doesn´t even seems happy after scoring a goal.

I rather see average players that loves the club and gives 100% for arsenal than worldclass players that just plays for money and never gives 100% and doesn´t give a shit about the club, like the players in man shitty..

It has crossed the writer’s mind that he’s bored of a player saying it’s not about the money, when the only stumbling block (given the assurances of the boss that he will get to play striker) is money. I don’t personally believe that Walcott deserves a six-figure weekly pay-packet that would see him earn double what someone like Jack Wilshere earns and would make him the highest paid player at the club in the process. It’s also occurred to the writer that the manager doesn’t believe it’s worth it either…hence why we haven’t bent over and taken one from Theo’s advisors. If we turn around and offer him £100,000 tomorrow there’s nothing to stop him asking for £150,000 the moment City or Chelsea come sniffing next year or the minute he walks out of negotiations. We know what he’s been offered elsewhere and we can’t match it and we’re not going to try. Players hold all the power, but it’s suicidal to blindly agree to their demands and ignore the long-term financial consequences. Signing Theo at £100,000 / week for 5 years is a cool £26m commitment (plus bonuses).

The club wants to maximize returns, the player wants same. In other words it is business. Why should we then call him names for wanting more money? Oh he should come out openly and tell us the truth? Adebayor was blunt about it and that ruined him. On the other hand Fabregas- the most loved- came with the excuse of wanting to go back to his “boyhood club” and along side the bias blogs, that story was sold to the fans. Song was never given a fair chance probably because he was from “poor Africa” and he wanted more money. He was not worth it, always going forward and not covering up thus making us to concede cheaply. Song has left, has the situation changed?

The game is business the sooner we accept it the better. Quit calling whoever wants better things for himself names. Are you bloggers enemies of progress?

We will see what future holds for Walcott and Arsenal. But his is looking brighter at the moment. And still I think you went to far slaming Walcott.
Please prepare for Sagna… but for Sagna please do it with more style.
Tnx

Chimasacker, you spend most of your time attacking Arsenal bloggers and Arsenal fans as far as I can tell. You need to understand that unlike a player, a football club can go out of business if it makes poor business choices, such as giving in to every player’s wage demands without at least an attempt to limit expenses. If you want to see players paid what they want instead of what they deserve you are supporting (following? noticing in passing?) the wrong team.

You may not realise it but as Theo Walcott has worked at Arsenal for 6 years they have probably got a fairly good idea of how his mind works, what his attitude to work is, whether he truly has it within himself to improve or not. They will have considered what they know of him, and what they think they can get out of him, and they will have tailored their offer to him based on that, while keeping in mind the need to remain in business. They may be perfectly aware that he is eyeing a move and playing better as a result. They may even have decided to reduce his games played as they can tell that he will be able to put more energy into each game. Conisdering their better access to him than you have, I hope you don’t mind if I go with their decision on what he is worth to them rather than yours (which, after all, is based on speculation and second hand information gained largely from journalists whom we know cannot be trusted to tell us the truth).

Thing is, if we give him 100k and he stays, and he doesn’t get better, or even keep up this wonderful new deadliness at the same rate, then we cannot later ask for our money back so that we can spend it on a new striker who will do the job for us consistently.

Then you have to consider what we do when Theo is playing his old inconsistent way each week and we find that Wenger is picking the Ox ahead of him on a regular basis but is coming up for a new contract. How much is he worth to us? He will be sure he is worth more than 100k a week because he is better than the guy on 100k that he has replaced. Oh dear, it’s getting expensive.

Seriously. It’s blindingly obvious that in today’s climate you have to pay to keep players. We used to before being blown out if the water. FFS Arsenal, you just got a fat new sponsorship, do what all the other winning teams do and cough up. It’s nothing for a man of his worth, despite his tash.

Theo is probably not worth a 100k a week to many on the top clubs. But because of our crazy transfer policy of selling our best performers, theo is now worth that and more to us because we have fuck all options if he goes. He knows it his agent knows and now arsene and the fucking club know it.
How many players have to leave before people on here stop and think that it might just not be down to all the players being greedy cunts.
He is out top scorer and lasts seasons second and top assist maker. Ok he has bad days we all know that but because we are in the shit we now need him more than he needs us and that’s why he’s worth 100k.
We are supposed to be a top club yet it only happens to us year atfer year. How about we just once we tell Man U and city etc to fuck off and sign the player up and move on with a settled team for once.

We need him more than he needs us so we must give him whatever he wants? OK. Now, when he underperforms next season and The Ox saves us we then need him more than he needs us, so we give him 100k plus a bit more because of inflation, plus another bit more because he is better than 100k a week Walcott. So the following season, when the Ox is feeling self-satisfied and doesn’t feel the need to work as hard what do we do then?

Theo has managed himself well while he’s been with us. I don’t know whether he realizes it but all this time AW has actually been playing him where he should be. He’s probably only just matured and doesn’t know what hit him. Henry never really confined his game centrally, he utilised the spaces on the flanks to great effect and brought everyone else into it. If your gonna inherit the shirt,inherit the game as well…Elsewhere, IG!Just give him the 100K no? Ok Bye.

Everyone was saying how shit he was a couple months ago and now people are talking about him like hes a god.
I personally feel that hes only playing so well because hes making sure he has clubs that will come for him. Lets say we offered him 100k a week I would be worried about him returning to type once that happens. Its quite funny how shot term football is 3 months of playing well suddenly hes valued at 100k.
Now im not bashing walcott and long may his form continue though as people have said it seems about like me me me but if hes getting goals who cares but I want to see this all season before someone says he worth 100k because if he did turn back into the old Walcott after getting 100k people would be saying omg why did they over pay another player and so on.

This is just the opposite side of the coin to “He plays shit. He always will. He’s never worth whatever we’re paying him” that we hear so often about so many of our players. He was certainly one of them until last year, and has only joined the other ‘team’ this season.

Wenger is clever to limit his opportunities as he knows it will mean he tries harder every time he plays as his shop window is not open to view so often. I think it possible that Wenger has already worked out he is determined to go, and has decided that a Theo trying twice as hard for half as much time on the pitch brings greater rewards than one who expects to get picked and can’t be arsed half the time.

Other than the reduced playing times I think that the parallels are there with the RVP situation, only Theo has smarter PR guys and is trying to remain a hero to the fans while engineering his move away, and realises that to insult Wenger or the club would be a fucking stupid thing to do.

I think his preference would be:
1) Big Big Contract with Man City or Chelsea
2) Big Contract with boyhood Idols Liverpool, and chance to be a Liverpool Legend
3) Short Contract with Arsenal, and chance to become a mini-legend before pursuing option 1 or 2 again next season

Theo keeps banging in goals and providing assists but he is not good enough. But Theo keeps banging in goals and providing assists. I’m starting to see a pattern developing here. Theo banging in goals and providing assists.

What I don’t understand is that within a year £100K will easily be the norm for someone of Theo’s age and quality. Increased revenue from the Premier League, Champions’ League, and commercial contracts will see to that.

So, the only question is does Arsenal want to keep him or replace him with someone else?

Well if the manager, the club and the writer don’t think Theo is worth £100K a week then we can’t they can’t have any complaints if he leaves.

It’s not dangerous in the slightest to offer him £100K a week, just because City or Chelsea might offer him £150K a week, it’s a completely different pay bracket, and if that is dangerous, well then surely not matching what he is after is even more dangerous? How can we even think of keeping him if that is your train of thought?

As I said before, it’s all too easy blaming players, the club simply doesn’t appear to be accountable in situations like this, when it is.

For what it is worth I would rather have all our best talent earning stupid money than the dross and underachievers in the squad earning substantial amounts (£50-60K a week). It’s what happens in the regular working place..

It´s an uncomfortable truth that a gentleman only fantasizes about a girlfriend once she becomes an “ex”.

Theo became an “ex” a few months ago when he would´ve put pen to paper if that was his real intention, and now the “fan”-tasizing is in full flow, every time he scores (i.e. pops round for a quick sympathy shag).

Much like Nasri, who played out of this world for half a season before doing one, the similarities are marked. I remember the misguided souls saying how we could afford to lose Fabregas but not Nasri. How we pined!

We all stopped yearning after Samir as soon as we realised he was in fact a total money-grabbing cunt. I suspect we´ll soon feel the same way about TW.

I will continue to read some of the articles on this site but damn am I tired of the defending of Aaron Ramsey and constant hes a cunt for leaving mentality. We aren’t paying enough plain and simple. I dont think Theo deserves 100k but hell 85 why not? This is on the board not the player.

You know i have gotten to that point where i dont really care anymore i cant keep on hating every player who leaves arsenal, i mean are they so different from the board, they say to the board can we win trophies the board says sorry but 4th is like a trophy that should be good enough for you, they ask how about you increasing our salary then, board says you know we cant do that we have to pay Ivan Gazidis loads of money and also pay wenger, and we also have to pay high wages for our none performing players as well, i don’t blame them song knew he would not have much playing time at barca but he left because he knew he would win stuffs, RVP left not only money but a better chance of winning silver wear at the end of the day, we can shout and hate all we like but the painful truth is that 4th is all we have to look forward to, i felt sports was a game of winning of trying to be the best, not just aiming for 4th, we pay the highest ticket fee in the game not just because we can afford it but because we hope against hope that we would go back to the top where we rightly belong, its a shame that we have now gotten to a stage where walcott is holding out for more money if it was 8 years ago he would have begged for a contract and would have signed it even if his wages had been reduced

Bang on as usual Mooro.
Some people including aa are just missing the point. It’s all about Theo’s worth to us and not his market value
Last season we could have sold him and replaced him no problem because we had rvp. We now play a totally different style to last and we don’t have a player of rvp’s quality.
So Theo’s value to us is inflated because we have few other options. Can’t see how people just don’t get it or how this looks again to other players and the outside world, that again arsenal sell their top scorer.

If we pay Walcott 100k a week, where will it end? Do you not think that this will set a precedent at the club causing many other players to start thinking they’re worth more than they’re currently on, and demanding more money?

Just take a deep breath for a second and think. Is Theo Walcott currently (CURRENTLY) a 100k a week player? The best player at Arsenal? Is he fuck. I like the guy and I do genuinely hope he stays, but his mind is focused on the money now and not the club. Is he better than Wilshere? Won’t Wilshere (who’s on half this mystical 100k figure) now start clamouring for more wages? What about the Ox? We cannot cave into unrealistic demands from players. We all know that if he goes to Chelshit or Man Cunty then he won’t play as much, but perhaps he’s not bothered by this.

Certain fans need to understand that we cannot currently compete wage-wise with the Manchester clubs or Chelsea. To be frank, even if we had that fat toad-faced shyster Usmanov in, what’s to say that he wouldn’t piss off after a few years leaving us piled high in debt. Look at Chelsea. After nigh on 10 years of Abramovich, this year they made money for the first time. A million fucking quid. Yep. A million quid and a shit-ton of managers, and once he pisses off they’ll have sod all and be back to square one. Say what you will about the financial fair play regulations, but we’re the only club that are really set up for when these new rules come in.

We can spend the megabucks now but where will that leave us in 10 years time? I understand we’re not on the same wage level as the clubs I’ve mentioned above, so we have to do the best with what we have, and part of this philosophy incolves not paying over-the-odds wages for players. Granted, mistakes have been made in this regard (Denilson, TGSTEL, Almunia etc.) but I hope Wenger has noted this.

If Theo’s motivation is money, let him go and earn what he wants to earn; he’ll most likely get much reduced game time and never fill his, admittedly, big potential. Let’s not make him the highest paid player at the club when we all know how average he can be on an alarmingly regular basis.

The Ox and Ryo will be left to take over the mantle, and both of those guys could end up as awesome players.

My question is the same as yours – where will it all end? But from the opposite perspective – where will it end if we DON’T pay Theo £100k a week.

Now do I think he’s worth it at that level? No. But then again, if we pay him that, when the time comes, we should pay Jack more, we should pay the Ox more and we should pay Ryo more.

You’re spot on – they are the future, but if we persist with our current model, they’ll sadly form part of someone else’s future – not ours.

And I agree again that the oligarch route isn’t the long term answer. But I do think its reasonable to question whether we use our existing resources as well as we should, let alone the new money coming in.

You only need to take a look not only at our bench, not even at those who don’t even get a sniff of the bench, but also those who aren’t even around and we can’t get shot of, to see the answer is a resounding no.

I realise there’s no easy fix to that, but that’s a hole we’ve dug ourselves so we might have to take a short term financial hit to get rid of these players and recruit others that can actually add something to the squad. Not sit on their arses counting their dough.

Mooro forgive me if I’m wrong but I suspect you’re of a vintage to remember when we used to pay top wack and attract the best out there

Woodcock

Mariner

and – heresey – Bonnie Prince Charlie, who let’s not forget turned down the champions to come to Highbury. We can’t pretend it’s because he was excited by Don Howe’s “project” can we, ffs? Cash, cash and more cash and the bright lights and the clubs, thanks v much.

And it got us precisely nowhere – in fact it took GG to come in, kick out the rich layabouts and get a bunch of lads on YTS money who fucking wanted it before we got anywhere.

Now, I’m not saying we’d see a league title roll up if we did the same nowadays, but I think if there’s a point that does stand, it’s that paying top wack doesn’t necessarily guarantee much at all.

It’s a pain in the arse though to see players bugger off year after year.

Take your point on splashing the cash not being a guarantee of success – only one team will win the league and only one team the Champions League, which means a lot of unhappy billionaire owners.

I always had the impression Woodcock and Mariner were slightly past their best when we signed them (don’t know how old they were at the time), but that’s by the by.

Unfortunately the game’s moved on in all sorts of ways, most notably financially (you think back then even Liverpool in their prime used to shop in the lower and Scottish leagues).

But back to now, we’re stuck in a spiral here – don’t win trophies, don’t reward our best players who then leave, so we don’t win trophies – which has to stop. Enough’s enough.

Theo wouldn’t have been my first choice as the player to make that stand over, to stick two fingers up to the Citeh’s, Chavs, Barca’s of the world and say, fuck you, we are Arsenal, not your feeder club. The shop’s now closed, so fuck off.

If it doesn’t happen with Theo (and I think he’ll go as he’ll still get more elsewhere with his sign on fee lumped on top), I’m shit scared about the future, about when Jack gets tapped, when Ox gets tapped. Is that when we draw a line?

Anyway, gone on too long.

The one good thing about those old days was we definitely weren’t a selling club cos no-one would buy the old tut we had back then!

Fuck him.
The only reason we’re mingeing over Theo is because our squad is so damnably thin. Just because we have shit scoring options doesn’t mean that he’s now worth 100K a week.

But let me tell you. If we don’t do some serious business this summer (both in and out) I’m going back to following american football. And by serious business I don’t mean just $$$$. As much as I love the guys we have to unload the perma-benched and the perma-crocked chaps and get some ‘Benayouns’ in here. Guys that can put in a shift when needed and give our stars a break.

There is another reason for whingeing about Theo.he’s won us nothing, and he’ll leave for nothing. We have invested in his career, taken a £15M risk, and have gained nothing. Ok he scored a few goals,but nothing another player couldn’t have. I feel a bit ripped off to have invested faith and optimism and to have contributed a very small chunk of his wages too.

If Arsenal had won this game, these quotes by Theo would’ve made sense. Right now he’s seemingly too far up his own ass. A more dedicated quote about Arsenal losing 2 points would’ve brought Theo in the good books but right now he is making himself look like a c**t I’m afraid.

Whole theo story is so boring. If he goes, he goes. How we handle it after he’s gone is the test.
Funny thing is – I can’t even force myself to give a fuck about theo. Like I didnt care about Hleb or Clichy. It’s not about quality of their football mind you, it’s about balls. Freddie, Bobby, Thierry, Cesc, Robin (hated as he may be, he had at least four, we have to give it him) – they all had balls, something likes of Theo and Gervinho are short of, hence they (in my eyes) are just not cut out to be cult figures. And only the sight of cult figures leaving can move me – when one of the rest tries to leave, I refuse to be bothered. I much rather look at it as an opportunity for a change.
For now all i can care about is swansea and i demand theo scores a hat-trick. A couple of assists on top of that would be nice too.

Those quotes make him sound like a right fucking prick. ‘I’m brilliant, if you look, you’ll see that i’m brilliant’. Not a word about his development at the club, thanks to the other players, the manager, the coaches. Fuck off. I’ll say it now because unless he’s preparing a nice “surprise! I’m staying after all!” surprise at the end of the season, he’s off for fuck all, after giving the club and the fans back nothing to show for his millions. So fuck off, Theo. I even named my cat after you.

The thing I find weird about Walcott’s contract situation is that he’s repeatedly said that it’s “down to his agents and the club.” Nobody else, at any team that I’m aware of, talks in those terms – as though his own values and interests are peripheral to the issue, and he’s just outsourced his judgment to a bunch of advisers. Very odd.

People can be sniffy little whiners about Walcott, but the simple fact is that he’s one of our more dangerous players, gets goals and assists as regular as anyone (bar RvP) over the past two years and Arsenal have left themselves in a joke position with him. Walcott’s in a strong position concerning his next move, and considering all he’s done is watch the other good players at the club leave and win things, i am not surprised he is putting himself in the shop window as the team he plays for gets shitter and shitter around him. Whatever you think of his quality, you cannot deny that last statement.

I’m sure there’ll be lots of ‘Good riddance’ nonsense when he leaves, followed by the team trundling forward slowly, with the zero fucking pace team we now have without him.

Sometimes I dont understand some fans… the same people who criticized Walcott for being horribly wasteful in front of goal these last years are the same who are criticizing him for being ‘a prostitute in a shop’.
Is Walcott TOO effective now?

I like Theo very much, Not because of his football, u like someone for no clear reason, Maybe you think they are nice ppl, Theo is that nice guy for me, In terms of his football, he can be good and shit in a span of 10mins. Even Theo won’t know why, But this “noise” from Theo is clearly advised from agents. Theo is not good at it, as we can see. Personally I wont feel much if he left, but my worry is will we get a replacement better than him…?? and How much it will affect our team as a whole, Players keep leaving is not good for Squad’s belief.

*Shrieking* Enough already! Everyone’s got an opinion about what Theo or the club should do or not do. Just watch the team and cheer them on. If you don’t like it, do something about it. If you can’t do something about it and keep whining, maybe you need to go watch and support another team play: Manchester isn’t awfully far and you have a fair choice of clubs en route.

Support the players on the pitch. The Manager has picked them. Support the Manager. The Board has picked him. Change the Board if you don’t like them, because they run the club. Otherwise, vote with your feet.

I really feel we need to sign Theo up, its just not the fact that he leaves its the symbolic value aswell. To compete with the best we need to keep the best players, simple as that. And Theo is one of our best players at the moment, 75k is a lot of money, but of course he can get more elsewhere, i personally feel he’s worth more, not astronomical money but 85 or so, if he rejects that fine, atleast we have made an real effort to keep him.